LLS Boy of the Year
Keeps Fundraisers Motivated Writer / Matt Keating . Photographer / Brian Brosmer
rake Williams, the Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Boy of the Year, is an active 5-year-old who takes swimming lessons, ice skates and plays soccer and T-ball. And he’s also busy meeting a wide range of fans helping LLS.
to serve as the coin toss kid for The Indianapolis Colts. He also met Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano. Abby, the assistant head of School for Enrollment Management and Communications at St. Richard’s Episcopal School, said St. Richard’s was incredibly responsive during Drake’s initial diagnosis and during his continuous attendance in junior kindergarten.
His mother, Abby, said Drake, who was diagnosed with leukemia on When Drake was first diagnosed with leukemia, Abby said she and April 1, 2015, has been popular with everyone he has met with The Kyle had no idea “what it meant to have high-risk Leukemia or that LLS Boy of the Year program. kids received chemo through a port surgically implanted in their chest or through double shots in their legs. We didn't know that the “Drake was ecstatic when he found out he was going to be the Boy issues of early detection and cancer prevention would come to be of the Year and has really enjoyed meeting all of the great people such important topics to us.” who are raising money for LLS,” Abby said. “He has made a lot of new friends.” Abby noted that early detection and money for research are necessary in the fight to prevent and treat cancer. Abby said she and her husband, Kyle, who works at Century 21 Scheetz, and their other children, Cole, 12, and Rose, 9, have been “As parents, we must be headstrong in asking questions, getting overwhelmed with support from family and friends. answers and pursuing the best course of treatment for our children,” Abby said. “The list of people who have helped has been endless,” Abby said. “We have had everything from meals being dropped off at the For the past eight years, Indianapolis has hosted a 10-week house, to continued prayers from fellow parishioners at St. Joan of fundraising event each spring to raise funds for LLS. The Arc, Indianapolis, to a mysterious blow-up Santa showing up in our organization’s Man & Woman of the Year Campaign invites front yard, high attendance at blood drives, and Drake being asked candidates to fundraise for 10 weeks through online donations, atBrip.com / MARCH 2017 / BROAD RIPPLE MAGAZINE / 29